Does the last digit of your RUT decide your payment dates?

'Due dates depend on the last digit of your RUT' is one of those lines everyone repeats. And it's only partly true. If your business has no employees — the case for almost every sole trader or monotributista — your BPS due date falls on the same day as everyone else's, whatever your RUT ends in.

Where the staggering idea comes from

If everyone paid on the same day, the DGI and BPS systems, the banks and the collection networks would be overwhelmed. So the state spreads collection out, and one of the criteria for sorting taxpayers is simple and objective: the last digit of the company number. What almost never gets said is that this criterion doesn't apply to everyone: the BPS calendar has several columns, and each type of company falls into one.

The real rule: it depends on whether you have employees

BPS puts companies without employees — sole traders, de facto partnerships and personal partnerships with a contract — into the 'cobranza descentralizada' (decentralised collection) system: it generates their invoice automatically, emails it to them, and their due date comes from a column with a single day per month, the same for every digit.

BPS sets it out like this:

«Unipersonales, sociedades de hecho o sociedades personales con contrato - estas empresas se encuentran adheridas al sistema de cobranza descentralizada, por lo que la factura mensual se genera automáticamente y se envía por correo electrónico al establecido.»

In English: Sole traders, de facto partnerships or personal partnerships with a contract - these companies are enrolled in the decentralised collection system, so the monthly invoice is generated automatically and sent by email to the address on file.

For companies with staff, by contrast, the digit does order the due date:

«El vencimiento de presentación de nómina y pago de obligaciones: corresponde realizar el pago al mes siguiente de producida la actividad de acuerdo al calendario de vencimientos, según el último digito del número de empresa»

In English: Deadline for filing the payroll and paying obligations: payment must be made in the month following the activity, according to the due-date calendar, by the last digit of the company number

What applies where

In order, so it's clear:

• Monthly BPS contribution without employees: one single day per month, the same for everyone — the last digit changes nothing.
• Monthly BPS contribution with employees (payroll is filed): yes, it is staggered by the last digit, in two groups (0–4 and 5–9).
• Monthly payments to DGI: a single monthly date, the same for every digit.
• The exact days for each column are in the due-date calendar BPS publishes every year.

How Tributo uses it

That's why, besides your RUT, we care about your situation: whether you have staff or not. With that we apply the right column of the current official calendar and show you your exact days, with no table-crossing on your part.

Who follows which column

In short: the last digit of your RUT matters less than people say. If you have no employees, your BPS due date doesn't depend on it, and DGI's monthly date doesn't either. The digit only separates companies with staff. The exact days change each year and live in the official BPS and DGI calendars; Tributo applies them for you. When in doubt, always check the official sources.